'One of the most damaging effects of excessive fear may be on social capital – the benefits accrued by communities when neighbours meet in shared spaces.' Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

In early February, I wrote here about the continuing and dramatic decline in violence and crime in the UK. Unsurprisingly, one of the most common responses below the line was incredulity. Several readers suggested the figures were declining because nobody bothered to report crime any more, not realising that the statistics were based on extensive crime survey research and not police figures. Some suggested that the national statistics must be masking concentrations of problems on deprived housing estates, where life gets ever more brutal. Yet others suggested conspiracies of data-fiddling or statistical jiggery-pokery. One commenter (whose blushes I shall spare) simply declared: "RUBBISH! Britain is worse than ever and soon will be even more."

The esteemed community of Comment is free is not unique. Two thirds of respondents to the British Crime Survey (now the Crime Survey for England and Wales, or CSEW) consistently say that they believe crime has increased a little or a lot over the past decade.

Today, a respected international research body, the Institute for Economics and Peace, has published its latest report on violence and crime in this country, the UK Peace Index, which should be enough to dispel most lingering doubts. It cross-references police-reported crime statistics with CSEW data and also with illuminating proxy measures such as hospital admissions for violent incidents.

It finds that in the past five years total homicides have fallen by 28%, all violent crime by 21%, weapons crime by 34% and public disorder offences by 29%. This continues the trend that began in the mid to late 90s – since when homicide rates have more than halved. It also breaks the figures down into local authority boundaries. Violence and criminality remain vastly more common in the most deprived inner city areas, but even in the most dangerous areas of London or Glasgow, the trend is down, not up. Britain remains among the more violent countries in western Europe, but the statistical decline is more rapid here than anywhere else. In 2012, the Global Peace Index ranked the UK 29th out of 158 countries. In 2007 we came 48th.

The total cost of violence and crime to the UK economy is estimated at £124bn per annum. To put that in perspective, a further 50% reduction in crime would cover the cost of every hospital built in the country over the past 13 years. Unfortunately the report doesn't attempt to evaluate the financial implications or the human cost of fear of crime.

There are good reasons to believe these are significant. Criminologists have documented extensive evidence of correlations, and some causal relationships, between fear of crime and negative psychological and physiological outcomes. It is commonly cited as a factor in the development of many mental health conditions. Other research invites caution. While people may report generalised anxiety about crime, they often struggle to recall many occasions when they have themselves felt fearful at the time. Of course, this could be explained by individuals adapting their lifestyles to avoid or avert situations they perceive as risky, and one of the most damaging effects of excessive fear may be on social capital – the benefits accrued by communities when neighbours meet in shared spaces, relate to each other and help and support each other.

Sceptics might suggest that the fear of crime has in itself helped to reduce actual levels of crime. If everyone lived behind reinforced shutters, only venturing out to drive a steel box from one locked garage to another, then of course there would be a reduction in crime. This is rather belied by data showing that family violence within the home is declining just as rapidly as stranger violence outside. It would appear that it is not just the opportunities to commit crime that are declining, but the motivation too.

Can anything be done to reduce fear of crime? It won't be easy. Psychology has taught us how cognitive biases skew our perceptions of risk. Neurologists explain that we have evolved physiological and emotional mechanisms to identify and avoid physical danger, which operate far more quickly and effectively than any conscious rationalisations. Newspaper editors and broadcasters have always known what sells their products and rule No 1 in the book is this: if it bleeds, it leads. Charities and campaigners have little incentive to report good news and progress made. Those who would stoke unease about immigration and community cohesion have always found fertile ground in fear of crime. Politicians realise there are very few votes to be won in calm reassurance that things are, in one respect at least, improving. The prevailing mood is always that the world is going to hell in a handcart, and woe betide any political candidate who suggests otherwise.

All in all, just about the only people who have nothing to gain from disproportionate anxiety are those who experience it. Acknowledging the truth may be difficult for some but the alternative is to live with needless stress and ill health, to wilfully accept a narrative that corrodes communities, degrades our society, and propagates racism, class prejudice and fear.